Facts
Cat Facts:
Calico cats are nearly always female.
Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes.
A cat’s jaws can not move sideways.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
A cat has four rows of whiskers.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
Catnip can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female’s urine.
The cat lover is an ailurophile, while a cat hater is an ailurophobe.
A group of adult cats is called a clowder.
A group of kittens is called a kindle.
All cats are born with blue eyes.
Cats have a homing ability that uses its biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth’s magnetic field.
Cats are subject to gum disease and to dental caries. They should have their teeth cleaned by the vet or the cat dentist once a year.
Cats bury their feces to cover their trails from predators.
Cats can learn tricks. They just sometimes choose not to.
Cats can predict earthquakes. We humans are not 100% sure how they do it. There are several different theories.
Cats have amazing hearing ability. A cat’s ear has 30 muscles that control the outer ear (by comparison, human ears only have six muscles). These muscles rotate 180 degrees, so the cat can hear in all directions without moving its head.
Cats love to hear the sound of their own name and your voice, so talk to them often.
Cats respond most readily to names that end in an “ee” sound.
Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. When cats are asleep, they are still alert to incoming stimuli. If you poke the tail of a sleeping cat, it will respond accordingly.
Declawing a cat is the same as cutting a human’s fingers off at the knuckle. There are several alternatives to a complete declawing, including trimming or a less radical (though more involved) surgery to remove the claws. Preferably, try to train your cat to use a scratching post.
Human painkillers such acetaminophen (Tylenol) are toxic to cats. Chocolate is also poisonous to cats.
If your cat is in the habit of rolling over and exposing his stomach, you can be sure he feels perfectly safe with you. It’s also a way of demonstrating his pleasure in your company.
It has been scientifically proven that stroking a cat can lower one’s blood pressure.
Many cats are unable to properly digest cow’s milk. Milk and milk products give them diarrhea.
Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box.
